School days tuna gratin

Once upon a time there was a school in Skanör-Falsterbo, Sweden. It was the late 80s and I was 14 years old, sitting in a classroom with four small kitchens in it. The subject was 'hemkunskap', which translates to home knowledge. The English equivalent is probably home economics.

The course literature was a book containing all sorts of things you need to know in order to successfully run a household, such as doing the laundry and ironing, cooking and washing up. I'm sure there was much more, but the only thing I remember from the lessons were cooking and washing up.

We were divided into groups of four and every one in my little group were interested in cooking, which made us stand out from the other groups, at least in regards to going rogue. If the recipe said one thing, the four of us were likely to have other ideas. Not every time, but every so often. Budding cooking enthusiasts and one of the guys actually became a professional chef. Not me, I remained an enthusiast.

I remember the chicken curry with a measly amount of curry powder in it. I admitted to the group that I had added some extra and that was followed by three other admissions of 'me too'. Oh dear... Turned out great though. The dish was meant to be served with four different trimmings in bowls. There were peanuts, banana, mandarin segments and something else, which I can't recall. Spring onion? Anyway, we only had a bowl mandarin segments and got a thrashing by the teacher for it, until she tried our curry. That's where all the other trimmings were and cooking them for a few minutes raised the dish to new levels. Result! 

One day we made a tuna gratin from the recipe collection at the back of the book. For the sake of this recipe alone, I kept that book for a good 15 years after leaving school. The meal I'm sharing today is that gratin, although I have changed the ingredients of the sauce. The original sauce was made from a light coffee cream, mayonnaise and a mild chilli sauce. Because I no longer cook with cream and I don't have access to the chilli sauce we have back home, I decided to change all of it, without losing the special flavour.

I'm a huge fan of layering food items in a dish and topping with a sauce that sinks into the layers, flavouring the entire gratin. The difference between cream and yogurt, that I use now, is that yogurt tends to stay on top of the dish and you miss out on the bonus sinking effect of the cream. The fact that yogurt is so much healthier weighs heavier for me though and I'm happy to lose out. I'll simply mix it on my plate instead.

The meal I made was enough for four people. As we were only two, we had it two days running and it was just as nice the following day.

To make this tuna gratin, you need:

rice, cooked

tinned tuna in water

mushrooms, sliced

leek, sliced

Greek yogurt

tomato puree

ketchup

chilli paste

salt & pepper

parsley

1. Cook the rice according to the instruction on the packet. Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

I didn't measure the rice, but probably made 4-6 portions.

2. Slice the leek and mushrooms.

I used a punnet of chestnut mushrooms and half a small leek.

3. Fry the mushrooms and leek in a little oil until the mushrooms soften and get a bit of colour.

4. Season with salt, pepper and parsley. 

5. Place the boiled rice in the bottom of an oven proof dish. You want quite a shallow layer.

6. Cover the rice with tuna.

I used two tins.

7. Cover the tuna with the mushroom mixture.

As you can see, the layer of rice is almost the same thickness as the tuna and mushrooms combined.

8. Add yogurt, tomato puree, ketchup and chilli paste to a bowl.

I can't give you any measurements, as I just spooned and squirted until it looked like enough.

9. Mix well and do a taste test. You want a slight tomato flavour, quite sweet and with a bit of a kick.

10. Carefully spread the sauce over the mushrooms and make sure you cover the entire surface.

11. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the sauce has turned orange. If it is still pink, it isn't done.

As you can see, the sauce hasn't sunk all the way down to the rice, like a cream sauce would have done. That's the downside with using a healthier yogurt option. If you aren't worried about your weight, swap the yogurt for whipped cream. It is lush!

12. Dish up and mix it on your place to make sure everything is coated with the sauce. 

This isn't a pretty dish to serve, so don't use it to impress guests. Normally I would serve it with a side salad, but to tell you the truth, I just wanted the full force of an old classic today. I'll eat salad tomorrow. Promise.